The world watched the historic passing of the Federal Reserve baton to "determined dove" Janet Yellen this February. The Yale University Ph.D. is the first woman to head the most influential central bank in the world, given the size of the Fed's balance sheet ($4.5 trillion in assets) relative to the U.S. GDP ($16.8 trillion). In October the Fed announced a cap on its six-year bond buying campaign

but said it will keep short-term interest rates near zero. Top on her to-do list: repair the American dream. "The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me... I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity."

More On Forbes

Kevin Warsh, Fed governor from 2006 to 2011 and now a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, appeared on CNBC this morning and shared some important thoughts on Federal Reserve policy and its impact on markets.

“The markets,” he said, “have been absolutely spoiled by the Federal Reserve and its accommodative read »

For the first time in history, a former Chair of the Federal Reserve is blogging. According to Ben Bernanke, his new Brookings Institute blog will be about “economics, finance, and sometimes baseball”. Apart from occasional speaking engagements, the public has not heard much from Bernanke since he left the Fed in early 2014 upon reaching read »

Sometimes the leaders of an institution can be undermined by their high-profile predecessors, but when it comes to the Federal Reserve it appears that Janet Yellen and former chair Ben Bernanke are mostly singing from the same songbook.

Bernanke launched his new blog for the Brookings Institute Monday with what amounts to a defense read »

It was a rough week for stocks as even some potentially calming words from Fed Chair Janet Yellen late Friday could not give the stock market much of a boost. Many pointed to the weak Durable Goods report last Wednesday as the catalyst for the selloff.

Friday’s government report on the 4th quarter GDP did not help either as it indicated read »

Last summer, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said valuations in certain corners of the stock market like biotech were getting “substantially stretched,” and traders have gotten a good laugh at her warning ever since as the stocks resumed their winning ways and raced higher. But given the recent battering of the biotech stocks, read »

Let’s start with The Wall Street Journal article, “Banks Struggle to Unload Oil Loans,” which reveals the Fed’s role in encouraging excess oil production that led to the inevitable price drop (italics are mine):

Energy-sector deals have been a bright spot at a time when once-lucrative read »

At almost exactly this time last year US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen stated that the central bank would stop using unemployment as a target to determine interest rate rises. Back then it was anticipated a hike in US rates would only happen at some point this year. Fast forward to 18 March 2015 and the Federal Reserve Open Market read »

If there’s been one bet on Wall Street that seems common of late, it’s putting money on continued strength from the U.S. dollar. The greenback has been surging for months, largely on the anticipation that the Federal Reserve will start tightening monetary policy against a backdrop of massive stimulus efforts by central banks in Japan and read »

I find myself increasingly confused about the actions of the Federal Reserve. To some extent that’s fine, I’m confused about many things about this modern world (Kanye, seriously? Kim Kardashian I can understand) but the monetary policy of the US does confuse me. I am not confused about imminent tightening: that I understand. I might, along with read »

On December 16, 2008 the Federal Open Market Committee slashed its target for the federal funds rate to a range of between 0% and 0.25% from the already low 1% rate. The FOMC wrote at the time: “Since the Committee’s last meeting, labor market conditions have deteriorated, and the available data indicate that consumer spending, read »

The U.S. dollar steadied against several currencies and gold was treading water near three-month lows as investors await the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting which gets underway later today.

It’s no real surprise to see that major currency pairs keep to tight trading ranges ahead of tomorrow’s Federal Open Market read »